Defence – Stilgherrian

13 June 2017

Talking end-to-end encryption on ABC RN Breakfast

Australia is opening a new campaign in the seemingly never-ending Cyptowars. This time, the target is end-to-end encryption.

Our favourite attorney-general, Senator George Brandis QC, wants “the cooperation of companies like Apple and Facebook and Google and so on” to help the government break into encrypted communications. That cooperation would presumably extend to messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and so on.

And cooperation would be ensured, thanks to new legal sanctions.

Brandis says he’s not interested in putting mandatory “back door” access into the encryption used by messaging platforms. But how can that be true when he’s asking for the tech companies to be able to provide access to customers’ encrypted messages? That’s exactly what a back door is.

Anyway, this morning I was interviewed on this topic by Fran Kelly on the ABC’s RN Breakfast. We spoke for more than seven minutes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.9MB)

For more analysis, try George Brandis’s salvo in cryptowars could blow a hole in architecture of the internet, by the Guardian’s Paul Farrell.

29 April 2016

Talking yet more cybers on ABC 774 Melbourne

ABC Sydney TARDIS 1

ABC logo In this month’s now semi-regular spot on ABC 774 Melbourne, it was only natural to talk about the Australian government’s new Cyber Security Strategy, as I did on four spots elsewhere last week.

But as you’ll hear, this 20-minute conversation with Lindy Burns on Tuesday night covered quite a bit of territory — even, briefly, the National Broadband Network.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.4MB)

For further background material, see the first post in this series.

[Photo: The view in ABC Radio’s Sydney TARDIS 1 just before I did this radio spot on 26 April 2016.]

24 April 2016

Talking Cyber Security Strategy on ABC 666 Canberra

ABC logo This is the final radio spot of four that I did on Thursday to discuss Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy.

For background on strategy itself, see the first post in this series.

This spot was on ABC 666 Canberra. The presenter was Adam Shirley.

Each of these spots varied in content and style. In this one, we discussed offensive cyber capabilities, the cyber arms race, whether the money is being well-spent, the difficulties of defending networks, the state of cybercrime, and what cyber attacks might involve.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.5MB)

24 April 201624 April 2016

Talking Cyber Security Strategy on Radio 2UE

This is the third of four radio spots I did on Thursday to discuss Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy.

For background on strategy itself, see the first post in this series.

This spot was on Sydney commercial station 2UE. The presenter was Bill Woods.

Each of these spots varied in content and style. In this one, we discussed the importance of cyber security and its history, the Bureau of Meteorology hack and its timing, the assumption that our spooks do what other country’s spooks do, the difficulty of attribution, the difficulty of cyber security, the cost of cybercrime, China’s hack of US fighter aircraft programs, and Australia’s ability to cash in on the cyber skills shortage.

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24 April 201624 April 2016

Talking Cyber Security Strategy on ABC 936 Hobart

ABC logo This is the second of four radio spots I did on Thursday to discuss Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy.

For background on strategy itself, see the first post in this series.

This spot was on ABC 936 Hobart. The presenter is Louise Saunders.

Each of these spots varied in content and style. In this one, we discussed why Turnbull spent so much time talking about the internet, why Australia needs such a strategy, Australia’s lack of awareness of cybercrime and our lack of data breach notification laws, the ASD’s role in protecting government networks, the cyber skills shortage, and the Cyber Security Growth Centre.

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24 April 201624 April 2016

Talking Cyber Security Strategy on ABC 105.7 Darwin

ABC logo On Thursday, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull released the government’s Cyber Security Strategy. Apart from writing about it for ZDNet, I ended up doing four radio spots. This is the first.

In this first post, I’ll mention as background reading the official Cyber Security Strategy website, the ZDNet stories Australia to get Cyber Minister as part of AU$240m cyber package and Turnbull calls for more openness surrounding data breaches, and my articles A ‘big science’ approach for Australian cybersecurity research? (published before the strategy was released, based on presentations at the ACSC Conference), and Turnbull sets the scene for a ‘Stop the Bytes’ election.

This first radio spot was on ABC 105.7 Darwin in the early morning, before the strategy was officially released. The presenter is Richard Margetson.

Each of these spots varied in content and style. In this one, we covered the recent rapid rise in cybercrime, the allegedly Chinese hack of the Bureau of Meteorology, a grab from Dr Tobias Feakin, and Australia’s ability to conduct offensive cyber operations.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)